Frequentatives of Derived Verbs in Q(u)enya
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I have trawled through Q(u)enya verbs in Eldamo to see if I can glean any idea how derived verbs form their frequentatives. I have identified the following ones, are there any others I have missed?
- tin-/tinta-/
tintila-/tintina- (not sure if the freq. is coming from the base verb or the causative here) - fara-/fafarra-
- naina-/nainaina- (both glossed the same so may not be a tru freq.)
- ola-/ololla-
- sirya-/sisíria- (the latter is unglossed but presumable is a freq. of the former, but there's also the consonantal sir- so the case is ambiguous)
- ulya-/ululla-
- tanta-/tantila- (this is EQ but in line with tinta-/tintila-)
- ororia- (this was deleted)
So plain a-verbs and ya-verbs seem more or less follow the pattern seen in consonantal verbs (stem duplication, doubled/strengthened final consonant or lengthened sundóma). Whether tintila- tantila- is indicative of how ta-verbs form their frequentatives, hard to say.
It might be also possible to employ the prefix vor(o)- to form a frequentative of a verb.
Any thoughts?
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It should perhaps be noted…
It should perhaps be noted that √EN is glossed as verbal "to go on doing" in PE 17. So maybe constructions like *en-kwet- were rather frequentative ("to go on saying") in PQ. and only later (in CE.? OQ.?) the meaning of en- shifted to the "(just) one more time" semantics we know from "modern" Quenya.
In reply to It should perhaps be noted… by Lokyt
That is possible. In my mind…
That is possible. In my mind en- is more or less equivalent of Latin (and consequently English) re-, and the verbs containing it having the same additional sense of amplification? fortification?, like eg. regard, respect, etc. As opposed to ata-
The verb tintila- isn’t a…
The verb tintila- isn’t a frequentative. It is a combination of TIN and THIL and thus originally has a meaning like “sparkle-shine” = “twinkle”. tintina- shows reduplication, and might be some kind of frequentative, however.
I also doubt EQ tantila- is a frequentative either. Its gloss “hop” doesn’t sound like a repeated action.
The rest look like plausible frequentatives to me, though. I’d add deleted tatalta- to the list, as well as sapsarra- “keep on rubbing”. Tolkien seems to have experimented with a variety of frequentative patterns, but the most common seems to be “reduplicate the first two letters”, so I’d default to that.
Isn't hopping a repeated…
Isn't hopping a repeated leaping? Our are the two the same rather.
Tatalta- is a very good point.
In reply to Isn't hopping a repeated… by Atwe
A hop is simply a smaller…
A hop is simply a smaller jump. “Hopping” is frequentative only in the sense that “walking” is, in that it can represent an ongoing series of actions because it is easier to make a series of small jumps than it is to make a series of large jumps. But jump can be used in the same way: “she is jumping around”. And hop can definitely be used for a single action: “he hopped over the fence”.
With EQ tanta- vs. tantila- the distinctions come from the semantics, not from the form of the word. If the form has any significance, I’d guess that it might be some kind of diminutive. But I looked at EQ verbs of similar form and saw no obvious patterns.